THE RETURN OF THE WHISTLER
All US, 1948, 60 minutes, Black-and-white.
Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, Richard Lane, James Cardwell, Anne Shoemaker.
Directed by D. Ross Lederman.
A series of eight films began in 1944, small supporting features at Columbia. Four of the films were directed by William Castle who, during the 1950s, directed small budget action adventures like Slaves of Babylon, Saracen Blade. From 1958 to 1968 he made a number of exploitative horror films with all kinds of gimmicks to scare audiences, House on Haunted Hill, I Saw What you Did. He also produced Rosemary’s Baby.
• The Whistler - 1944, directed by William Castle
• The Mark of the Whistler - 1944, directed by William Castle
• The Power of the Whistler – 1945, directed by Lew Landers
• Voice of the Whistler – 1945, directed by William Castle
• Mysterious Intruder – 1946, directed by William Castle
• The Secret of the Whistler – 1946, directed by George Sherman
• The Thirteenth Hour – 1947, directed by William Clemens
• The Return of the Whistler – 1948, directed by D. Ross Lederman
As with the radio program, the films are introduced by a shadowy figure walking across the screen, with his signature whistling, which sometimes recurs throughout the film is. He begins to speak, is a narrator of stories about crime, sometimes intervening with narration during the action of the films.
The star of seven of the eight of the films was Richard Dix who had begun his silent film career in 1917, was a popular star for the next 30 years, appearing in the 1931 Academy Award winning Cimarron.
The interesting point about Richard Dix’s presence is that he portrayed a different character in each film. Most of the characters are not entirely sympathetic, ambiguous in their moral attitudes, sometimes swinging between the law and working outside the law.
This is the last of the Whistler films, a series that lasted from 1944 to 1948. Richard Dix retired after The 13th Hour and died in 1949. His replacement was Michael Duane, a much younger actor.
As with the other films, the Return has its twists. It focuses on a young married couple with the Whistler commenting on their future. They are in a small town, have fallen in love, go to the judge’s house to be married only to find that he has had to leave for another visit and cannot return until the next day. They pulled up in a hotel, after a hard bargain and bribe for the receptionist who does not approve of their not being married so the young man goes to the garage to get his car fixed.
The woman has disappeared. She is French, has married an American during the war but he he was killed in action. She has returned to the family of her husband.
A private detective befriends the young man and travels with him offering to find where the young woman is. It turns out that he is in the pay of the family – the in-laws of the dead soldier were planning to take over the whole estate and sell it and commit the young woman to a mental institution, stating that one of the cousins was her husband and that he had not died in the war.
The young man is determined to find out the truth. The private detective finds out that he has been deceived when he goes to visit the mansion and the caretaker explains the truth.
The climax takes place in the mental institution, the young man pretending to be ill but having access to the wards and rescuing the young woman. The family have left, confident that all is well but see the young man’s car. Just as there is a confrontation, an appeal to the doctor to intern both the young man and the woman, the private detective turns up with the police and explains the case.
Happy ending – and happy ending to quite a good small series.
